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Derek Strauss
| division = Special Prosecutor's Office | title = Defense Attorney Assistant District Attorney | occupation = Attorney | status = Alive | first = "Undercover Blue" | last = "Genes" | playedby = Greg Germann }} Derek Strauss is an Assistant District Attorney from Westchester County who is frequently called in to handle cases that name police officers as the defendants to try and further his political career. He later left the DA's office to go into private practice. History When Brian Cassidy is accused of raping ex-prostitute Heather Riggs, Strauss tried the case without prejudice and was close to winning the case despite efforts by Brian's lawyer Barry Querns to prove his innocence. He called Heather, one of Heather's former coworkers, and Detective Amaro to the stand to present his case. When Cassidy takes the stand, Strauss gets Brian to say that, back then, he would have known Riggs couldn't consent to sex back then, incriminating himself. Eventually, it is discovered that Heather was conspiring with Bart Ganzel to frame Brian and eventually sue the city, and the charges are dropped. ( : "Undercover Blue") When Amaro is accused of shooting a boy named Yusef Barre without justification and while under the influence of alcohol, Strauss is called in to handle the case. He meets with Amaro and his attorney to discuss a plea deal, but when he informs them he wants to charge Amaro with a hate crime, they leave. Strauss impanels a grand jury to indict Amaro for a hate crime while Rita Calhoun represents him. When Nick testifies at the grand jury against Rita's advice, Strauss tries to goad him into confessing, but Nick manages to convince enough of the jury members that he was innocent. After the grand jury failed to indict him, they were forced to drop the charges. ( : "Amaro's One-Eighty") When William Lewis committed suicide and framed Sergeant Benson of murdering him, with evidence proving inconclusive to both sides of the story, Strauss is transferred from Westchester to run the investigation. To this end, he convenes a grand jury to indict Benson for murder. Strauss calls M.E. Melinda Warner, Detectives Carlson and Delano (the officers guarding her), Amaro, and Amelia Cole (Lewis' last victim) to testify to that effect. When the grand jury failed to indict Benson, he widened the investigation to include Benson's assault of Lewis. To this end, he called Detective Fin, Bronwyn Freed (the jury foreperson in Lewis' trial who later befriended Lewis), and Lieutenant Declan Murphy to testify. However, when Murphy testified that he instructed Benson to lie on camera to get Lewis to drop his guard, then instructed the grand jury to consider Lewis' crime spree, the grand jury elected against indicting Benson. ( : "Post-Mortem Blues") Prosecutions handled Trials *People vs. Officer Brian Cassidy ("Undercover Blue") *People vs. Detective Nick Amaro ("Amaro's One-Eighty") *People vs. Sergeant Olivia Benson ("Post-Mortem Blues") Known Clients *Sam Dalton ( : "Genes") Appearances *''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (3 seasons, 4 episodes): **Season 14: "Undercover Blue" **Season 15: "Amaro's One-Eighty" • "Post-Mortem Blues" **Season 18: "Genes" Category:Assistant District Attorneys Category:SVU Characters Category:SVU Recurring Characters Category:Males Category:Defense Attorneys Category:IAB Characters